PALM BEACH GARDENS — Property insurance impacts every homeowner in the state, and it's an issue WPTV has not stopped helping you navigate.

We continue to listen to many of your questions about what's being done to fix Florida's insurance coverage collapse.

WPTV reporter Matt Sczesny is digging into a new report that calls into question the rebound of the homeowners insurance industry in Florida following reforms.

A new report on Florida's homeowners insurance is suggesting the reforms enacted by lawmakers are backfiring, with more claims closed without payment and more lawsuits. Data from Palm Beach Gardens-based Weiss Ratings showed non-payment closed claims were up 17% from 2022 to 2024, and lawsuits from those types of closed claims were up 4%. "The bottom line we see is that many, not all, but many insurance companies abuse their own customers," Weiss Ratings founder Martin Weiss told Sczesny on Wednesday. "Then they blame their own customers, then they're surprised by the customers' ire, ... the customers' anger to get the money they deserve."

According to Weiss, tort reform doesn't work.

"Instead of helping to reduce the number of lawsuits, it boomeranged, it backfired, it had the opposite effect," Weiss said.

The study showed that in 2022, insurers in Florida closed 40% of claims without payment, and that number jumped to 46.7% in 2024.

Meanwhile, instead of going to court less often, as everyone expected, policyholders went to court more often.

Supporters of the reforms point out that many insurers rates are decreasing and more companies are entering the Florida market, increasing competition.

Blaise Ingoglia, the state's new chief financial officer, said the market is improving and he's holding insurance companies accountable.

"My job is not to protect the profits of insurance companies, my job is not to protect the profits of trial attorneys suing insurance companies," Ingoglia said. "My job is to protect the policyholders."

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